Hello!
Today’s
lesson is fun. It’s a collection of imaginary words – they don’t exist
in the English language but they should. English is a very flexible
language, it’s easy to make invented words and have people understand
them.
Words are created in many different ways: we borrow words from other
languages, we shorten words – from gymnasium, we all say “gym”, we use
suffixes and prefixes, we mix or blend two words together to make one –
the word “brunch” comes from combining “breakfast” and “lunch”. We also
use onomatopoeias and acronyms like FBI, as well as using new words that
arise from popular culture. Finally, another way we have of creating
new words is by functional shifting: this is the process by which an
existing word begins to be used with another grammatical function. For
example: e-mail means “electronic mail” and is a noun used to describe
electronic post, right? But now we also use it like a verb: “to email”.
Let’s look at some invented words and understand how they were
created. This way you can learn to make up your own words too! As long
as you remember to observe basic grammatical rules of how words are
formed, everyone should still understand you!
ImaginaryWords
afterglobe n. The warm, fuzzy feeling one gets after a long immensely satisfying trip.
How was afterglobe formed?
First, let’s look at the meaning of the words:
after - following in time : at a later time
globe – another way of saying the Earth.
afterglow - a happy feeling that remains after a successful or emotional event.
From these three words, do you see how we can create a word to mean
the happy feeling after we do something, in this case, to travel? By
using a combination of two words and a suffix, we have a brand new word
that makes perfect sense!
ingesticulate v. To point and mime to order food when you don’t know the local language.
How was ingesticulate formed?
ingest - o take (something, such as food) into your body : to swallow (something).
gesticulate - to move your arms and hands especially when speaking in an angry or emotional way; to mime.
Here, we have combined two words to make one. Two verbs to make one action.
Have you ever ingesticulated in a foreigh country before?
Let’s see if you can create a new word too! Give us your best made-up words in the comment section below.
And if you wish to see the rest of imaginary words, visit this Lonely Planet article.
30 travel terms that don’t exist but should
adminLonely Planet author
The
Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 unique words – surely
enough to describe any situation, one would think. But as any traveler
knows, the world has a way of confronting us with sights and experiences
that can leave even the smartest among us at a loss for words.
Sometimes we’re limited by our vocabularies, but often the word we need
to describe what we’ve seen and done simply doesn’t exist…yet.
